Background about Mort Walker

Beetle Bailey, the world's most famous work-shirking private, must envy the comfortable lifestyle now enjoyed by his creator, celebrated cartoonist Mort Walker. But making it to the top of the competitive newspaper comics field took plenty of hard work, which was never popular in Beetle's bailiwick.

Mort Walker is now joined in the creation of Beetle Bailey by his sons, Brian Walker and Greg Walker.

The year 2010 marked the 60th Anniversary of Beetle Bailey. For over half a century, Beetle has lived up to his reputation for sowing laziness in the ranks, while Walker earned his rank as the world's most prolific cartoonist, along with stacks of prestigious honors and awards.

Born in 1923 in El Dorado, Kan., Walker published his first comic when he was 11. He sold his first cartoon at 12, and at 14 he was selling gag cartoons regularly to Child Life, Inside Detective and Flying Aces magazines. At 15, he was comic-strip artist for a daily metropolitan newspaper. At 18, he became chief editorial designer at Hall Bros., ushering in a light, playful style for the company's Hallmark Cards line.

The following year, 1943, Walker was drafted into the Army. He was discharged as a first lieutenant four years later, and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1948. While at M.U., he was editor of the school magazine.

He then went to New York City to pursue his cartooning career. In order to survive he worked as editor of three magazines for Dell Publishing Company. His first 200 cartoons were rejected, but he persisted, and editors started to recognize his talent and in two years he was the top-selling magazine cartoonist.

His first big break came in 1950, when King Features picked up Beetle Bailey for syndication.

Beetle, who was originally called "Spider," began as a college cutup. When he stumbled into an Army recruiting post in 1951 during the Korean War, circulation began to climb.

The comic strip experienced two other notable jumps in circulation. In the early 1950s, when the Tokyo edition of Stars & Stripes dropped the strip because it supposedly engendered lack of respect for officers, the U.S. press had a field day attacking the maneuver, and 100 more newspapers enlisted "Beetle Bailey." Then in 1970, when Lt. Jack Flap first marched into Sarge's office, Beetle Bailey became the first established strip to integrate a black character into a white cast. Stars & Stripes and some Southern newspapers quickly discharged the strip, but 100 other newspapers joined up.

King Features now distributes "Beetle Bailey" to roughly 1,800 newspapers.

Walker's comic strip "Hi and Lois," which he created with Dik Browne, began in 1954 as a spin-off of Beetle Bailey, when Beetle went home on furlough to visit his sister Lois and brother-in-law Hi.

Walker also created "Boner's Ark" in 1968 under the name "Addison," and created "Sam & Silo" with Jerry Dumas in 1977.

Walker has been recognized not only for the wide and enduring popularity of his work but also for his stylistic innovations and his leadership in the comics field. His use of high-contrast, deceptively simple imagery and compact gags became the standard for a generation of cartoonists and endures today.

Walker also recognized the historic contributions of his predecessors and contemporaries.

In 1974, he founded the Museum of Cartoon Art, the first museum dedicated to the preservation and elevation of the art of comics. The museum now houses the largest complete collection of its kind, making it the premier showcase for one of America's few indigenous art forms. Walker was inducted into the Museum of Carton Art Hall of Fame in 1989.

In 1992, the museum was relocated from Rye Brook, N.Y., to Florida's Mizner Park in Boca Raton, and renamed the International Museum of Cartoon Art. Walker's dedication to the project is tireless. He organizes exhibitions, creates fund-raising campaigns and is involved in all facets of the museum. A retrospective exhibit commemorating "50 years of Beetle Bailey opened at the Museum on Veteran's Day, November 11, 2000 and ran through February 2001. The exhibition featured original comic strips and character art, special interactive exhibits for children, animated Beetle Baileyy cartoons, Beetle and Sarge costumed character appearances, and a 16-foot-high birthday cake display, complete with animatronic Beetle and Sarge characters.

Walker has written several books on the art and history of comics, as well as children's books. He has published numerous collections of his comics work, including nearly 100 Beetle Bailey and three dozen "Hi and Lois" paperbacks. Walker's autobiography, "Mort Walker's Scrapbook: Celebrating a Life of Life and Laughter" was released in 2001. An animated "Beetle Bailey" television special was produced for CBS in 1989.

Walker still oversees the 9-to-5 work of the staff at his Connecticut laugh factory studio, which was unofficially dubbed "King Features East" because the work generated there once rivaled the combined output of the entire King Features Syndicate comics department.

Walker and his wife, Catherine, have 10 children between them from previous marriages. Six of his children, as well as the son of his former collaborator Dik Browne, contribute to the funny business, along with several other artists and writers. The shop uses only the best gags -- there are more than 10,000 unused gags in the vault -- and in nearly 60 years, the studio has never missed a deadline, keeping King Features happy and comics fans in stitches.